Zackary Canepari (b.1979, USA) is a freelance photographer specializing in editorial and documentary photography. His career began in 2003 shooting portraiture for American culture magazines such as XLR8R, RIDES and the SF Guardian. Before that he studied photography in Paris at the SPEOS photographic institute and later entered the Masters Program at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. He has been still photographer for two documentary films, My Blood My Compromise, about the struggle for Independence in Kosovo and REBORN, about rebuilding the New Orleans school system after Hurricane Katrina. For the past two years he has been based in New Delhi working with clients that include the New York Times, The Guardian, Newsweek, TIME Magazine, and The Chicago Tribune.

About the Photograph:

“Unofficially there are three stages of tiger personality when it comes to human interaction and hunting. The normal tiger generally will shy away from people and will only attack if threatened. Often, this will happen and the tiger will kill in self-defense. This sometimes will lead to a tiger becoming a man-eater, meaning it will hunt humans for food. Man-eaters almost always attack from behind, usually aiming for the victim’s right shoulder/neck. In the Sunderbans, the honey collectors often will wear human masks on the back of their heads, hoping to confuse or discourage their predator. But the tigers aren’t easily fooled, and the honey collectors twice a year enter the forest and risk an attack. For these poor people, the money earned is essential for survival. Finally, the most fearsome and rare of the tiger man-eaters is the man-killer. Man-killers have stopped fearing humans and no longer hunt in the classical manner from behind. Man-killers come from the front. With a man-killer, the mask is useless.” (more…)

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Muge Tang (b.1979, Chongqing, China) graduated from Sichuan University in 2004. He began to seriously photograph the same year and is currently freelancing in Chengdu. His work has been exhibited in Japan (Mio Gallery, Osaka), England (Photo Cinema Gallery, Derby) and Germany GIM-Gallery, Bremen).

About the Photograph:

“This series of photographs were taken between 2006 and 2008. I don’t know how many persona’s a person may have, as I don’t know what the future of the life is. When I met those people, the only thing that I can relied on was the realities around me and my own intuition. Pressing the shutter release button became a ritual of understanding human beings and their lives. This is the epitome of people in society. This is my heart. A kind of reflection, understanding and contradiction.”

Kevin J. Miyazaki (b. 1966, USA) is an editorial and fine art photographer based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He began his career on the staff of The Cincinnati Enquirer, and later became the photography director at Cincinnati Magazine. He went on to become the photographer at Milwaukee Magazine, and left five years ago to pursue freelance editorial work. His publication credits include, Time, Newsweek, Forbes, Fortune, National Geographic Traveler and numerous others. He is represented by Redux Pictures.

About the Photograph:

“In the series Camp Home, I document the reuse of buildings from the Tule Lake internment camp, where my father’s family was sent during World War ll. The barracks used to house Japanese and Japanese American internees were dispersed throughout the neighboring landscape following the war. Adapted into homes and outbuildings by returning veterans under a homesteading movement, many still stand on land surrounding the original camp site. In photographing these buildings, I explore family history, both my own and that of the current building owners – this is physical space where our unique American histories come together. Because photography was forbidden by internees, very few photographs of homelife were made by the families themselves. So my pictures act as evidence, though many years later, of a domestication rarely recorded during the initial life of the structures. This picture was made in a building owned by the Prosser family. Now grown, the Prosser children opened their childhood home and allowed me to photograph. In the room they called “the bunkroom,” it seemed little had changed since the Prossers were teenagers. The bb guns and ballcaps especially resonated with me, as my father was a teenager during his time in the internment camp.”

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Suyeon Yun (b.1972, South Korea) earned her MFA in photography at Yale University (2008), BFA in photography from Art Institute of Boston (2003). She recently won several awards including the Daum Prize 2008 from the Geonhi Art Foundation, the Alice Kimball English Traveling Fellowship from Yale University, and the Tierney Fellowship from Tierney Family Art Foundation. Since 2003 her work has been about themes related to refugees and the U.S. military. She is currently based in the Middle East and United States for her third war series.

About the Photograph:

“North Koreans have been crossing the border into China in search of refuge since the height of their famine in the 1990s. Seeking resettlement, the majority of North Koreans transit through a host of other countries before finally settling in South Korea, as a final destination of hardship journey for years. Incomplete Journey was made over three years and focuses on North Koreans living in South Korea. The photographer employed North Korean refugees as interviewers, location scouts and directors of photography. Together, they worked to locate the Korean War and its living social context, nearly 55 years since the war had been stopped and forgotten.”

Danny Wilcox Frazier (b.1971, USA) is a documentary photographer based in the Midwest. Over the past four years, Frazier has photographed people struggling to survive the economic shift that has devastated rural communities across his home state of Iowa. Frazier’s clients include: Time, Life, Newsweek, Mother Jones Magazine, Forbes,and People. He has won prizes from Pictures of the Year International, the National Press Photographer’s Association and Society of Professional Journalists, as well as multiple foreign and domestic grants and fellowships. Frazier’s foreign assignments have taken him to Afghanistan, India, Cuba, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Kosovo and Mexico. Frazier has a master’s degree from the University of Iowa, where he taught photojournalism during his graduate studies. His book Driftless: Photographs from Iowa was published by Duke University Press in 2007.

About the Photograph:

“The feeling of openness that so defines the Midwest’s rural landscape is being replaced by one of emptiness,” Frazier says. “As the economies of rural communities across America continue to fail, abandonment is becoming commonplace; these photographs document the human effect of this economic shift. What I hope they do is force people to think about the decline of these rural places and start thinking of solutions. And I think the biggest solution is immigration.”

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After graduating from The Danish School of Art Photography [1998-1999] in Copenhagen Søren Østerlund [b.1975, Danish] enrolled in the Documentary Photography and Photojournalism Program at the International Center of Photograph [1997-1998] in New York. Søren also attended the Danish School of Journalism [2004-2008] and is currently working as freelance photographer in Denmark. Søren has completely projects on Fussball in Europe and shoots portraits for magazines in Denmark.

About the Photograph:

“The boy on the right, Andres, has cancer, so the family are in great debt. Andres and his father must travel for a day each way to the hospital for his treatment. The oldest son is working illegal in the states and sending some of his sparse income home. But they can’t afford the hospital bills. His father told me: Maybe if Andres gets to be educated at the hospital, we can pay back the money that way. The photograph is a part of a project I made in a village called Chaculá. I wanted to document how the traditions of the indigeonous people are being challenged by the inluence of north-American lifestyle and the search for a better life.”

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Eren Aytuğ (b. 1979, Turkey) is a freelance photographer currently doing his Master’s degree in Marmara University, Communication Faculty, Department of Journalism. He specializes in editorial photography; both reportage and portrait work. He worked as a full time photojournalist for many magazines and newspapers between 1998 and 2007. In 2002, he participated in World Press Photo’s seminar program. In 2006 he photographed postwar daily life in Kabul, Afghanistan. During the past two years he has been working for Turkish and foreign publications, and also working on independent photography projects. In 2008, he photographed makeshift refugee camps in the South African city of Cape Town.

About the Photograph:

“The Pink Loerie Mardi Gras started seven years ago and has since had huge support from the gay and lesbian community. It is the largest gay fest of South Africa and takes place in May every year. In 2008, the town’s Main Street was covered with brightly dressed men sporting placards reading “I am what I am,” “Live and let love” and “I’m the pink sheep in the family”. Curious residents and tourists could be seen lining the pavements to watch the annual gay parade as hundreds of men marched by in outlandish evening wear, sequinned tops and feathered head dresses.”

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Tim Dirven (b.1968 Belgium) studied photography at the Saint Lucas Institute in Brussels from 1988 till 1992 and at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. In 1994 Tim began working as a freelance photographer, and since 1996 he has been working full time for the Belgium newspaper ‘De Morgen’. He has made reports all over the world, on assignment for magazines and newspapers, the Belgium Red Cross, Medecins sans Frontières, Handicap International, National Geographic or as personal projects. Tim won a World Press Photo award for his report about refugees in Afghanistan. Since 2000 Tim Dirven has been a member of the London based agency Panos Pictures. His book “Yesterday’s people” was published in 2006 by the museum of photography of Antwerp.

About the Photograph:

West Virginia is one of the poorest states in the USA. This photo of Derrik and Kim, a construction worker and waitress is part of a series on survivors called Yesterday’s People in the “Land of the free.” They say Grafton is dead, and all young people want to leave because they hate the place. But after ten years they return, they miss home.”

Editors Note: I find it interesting to see another point of view in the way that European photographers (or ones from other parts of the world) see America. It’s been fifty years since “The Americans” was published and if there was one book that shaped a generation of photographers it was Robert Frank. Viva la difference.

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Duwei, drummer for the Nanjing-based punk band Overdose. Shanghai, China.

Scott Brauer (b.1982, Landstuhl, German) is currently based in Nanjing, China. He graduated with honors from the University of Washington with dual degrees in philosophy and Russian literature and language in 2005. Scott interned at Black Star and VII New York in 2005 and worked for daily newspapers in 2006 and 2007: the Northwest Herald in suburban Chicago, and the Flint Journal in Flint, Michigan. He is represented by Invision Images for European sales. Brauer’s stock archive is available at the Photoshelter Collection. His pictures have been published internationally and exhibited in London and Kosovo.

About the Photograph:

“This is Duwei, of the Chinese punk band Overdose, formerly of Nanjing, but now relocated to Beijing. The band, especially Duwei and his girlfriend, the band’s lead singer Ruan Ruan, were one of the first bands I got to know while working on the punk story, and they’re pretty deeply connected to the entire country’s underground and independent music scene. This picture was taken on a trip to Shanghai with the band. We spent a few hours just chilling behind the club, which opens out onto a beautiful big park in the middle of Shanghai. The park closes to the public in the evening, but the bands use it as an unofficial green room, a place to get away from the mania inside the club. Duwei’s covered with tattoos on his torso. Like a lot of punk fans and musicians, the aesthetic is an important part of participation for him, and he’s particularly drawn to the Rockabilly or Psychobilly style.”

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Guy Calaf (b.1978. Italy) spent his childhood between Italy and the US. In 1997 he moved to Milan he received a degree in Communication Science focusing on the semiotics of Vietnam War photography in 2003. Guy joined the WpN photo agency in early 2004, after which he worked in Palestine, Sudan, Chad, Eastern DRC, Eastern Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Afghanistan and Iraq. Guy’s photographer have been published in: Vanity Fair, Le Figaro Magazine, Paris Match, National Geographic, Le Point, GQ Italy, Der Spiegel, Newsweek, USA TODAY, Time Magazine, and Stern among others. He is based in Ethiopia.

About the Photograph:

“I shot this picture in 2005 while i was on a day trip with the United Nations Peacekeeping mission for the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo). They took a group of journalists to one of their disarmament Camps where hundreds of young militia men were waiting to hand over their guns to the the UN. While I was walking around taking photos and chatting with the guys I saw this young man, at most 18 years old, and took some photos of him from bellow with my 50mm lens. He was very quiet and seemed a bit lost in the crowd. A terrible sense of sadness was surrounding him. I exchanged a few words with him and offered him a cigarette. We shook each others hand. He tried to smile and we both said goodbye. I lived in Eastern Congo’s region of Ituri for 3 months in 2005. While I was there tens of villages were burnt by rival militia groups. Thousands of people died. I spent about a week in a camp about three hours drive from Bunia, Ituri’s capital, where more than twenty thousand people were gathered after their villages were reduced to ash. Many children had their face disfigured by machetes. The accounts of the violence was disarming. I keep going back to Eastern Congo and am working on a story on sexual violence in the East of the country.”

Zach Wise (b. 1979, USA) is currently a multimedia producer for the New York Times. Before coming to the Times, Wise was the senior multimedia producer for the Las Vegas Sun. He oversaw the implementation of multimedia in terms of workflow, presentation and technology. He was also a multimedia storyteller for the Sun who shot and produced stories in multiple formats ranging from video to panoramas. Wise holds a master’s degree in photojournalism from the School of Visual Communication at Ohio University and won several CPOY awards for his multimedia photojournalism projects there. In 2005, he won the Gold 2005 Horizon Interactive Award for “Spit It, Quit It”. In 2006 he was awarded Yahoo! site of the day (May 2006) for Losing Louisiana: Land Loss on the Coast, which was also a featured site on BBC Science and won the Talking Hands Award.

About the Photograph:

“I left the Las Vegas Sun after completing two large projects I felt very passionate about. This is one of them. Reckless Willie is a short documentary on a boxer who is arguably at the end of his career. Willie Chapman has ten children in three states and he’s forty years old. Professional boxing matches are still his main source of income and also the only way he can pay child support to see his kids. Because of his age and losing record, Nevada may not license him to fight anymore. Willie also shows signs of dementia, most likely caused from continued brain trauma caused by boxing.”

Editors Note: Photographer and multimedia producer Zach Wise has been at the forefront of combining photojournalism and interactive media work on the web. He was part of the team that produced Soul of Athens, a watershed project as well as Thirst in the Mojave for the Las Vegas Sun.

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Khaled Hasan (b.1981, Bangladesh) received his master’s degree in Accounting from the National University of Bangladesh. He graduated from Pathshala (South Asian Institute of Photography) in 2008 and has worked for The Daily Shomokal and Majority World photo agency. He won the 2008 All Roads Photography Program of National Geographic Society for his Documentary Project “Living Stone”. He believes that it is essential for the photographer to create communication and trust with his subjects. “Photography has the visual power to educate by allowing us to enter the lives and experiences of others.” His current projects include Jihad: Fighter of Disability and Leather Workers of Bangladesh.

About the Photograph:

“This photo is from a project about the stone workers of Jaflong in the northeastern part of Bangladesh. The Piyain River in flows from India through Bangladesh. During the monsoon, the river currents wash down precious rocks and pebbles from India into Jaflong area. At dawn every day, more than a hundred little boats with laborers enter the Piyain River, buckets and spades in hand. This is one trade which has a geological limit. The stones that tumble down the riverbed from India are decreasing in volume and the laborers are already taking the risk by invading the no-man’s land along the Indo-Bangla border which is considered a sensitive area. More than two thousand men, women and child stone-laborers are engaged here. Utilization of modern machinery like cranes has taken over the use of primitive tools and many children have been suffering from hearing problems due to the high-pitched sounds of the equipment. As many as 250 machines are engaged in crushing stones at Jaflong. The farmers there can no longer produce crops because of the dust from the crushed stones.”

Editors Note: Chobi Mela (Picture Festival), an international photography festival with over sixty exhibitions from thirty-five countries, has opened in Dhaka this weekend. More details at Banglaphoto, the other blog I maintain from Bangladesh.

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About...

Photographer and photo editor Geoffrey Hiller has created Verve Photo to feature photographs and interviews by the finest contemporary image makers today. Verve Photo is a reminder of the power of the still image. Verve Photo will also point you to new photo agencies, publications, and inspiring multimedia projects.